A senior US diplomat says the US will continue to have discussions with claimants in the South China Sea dispute. In an interview with VOA Khmer, Scot Marciel, the State Department’s top diplomat for Asia and the Pacific, said “regular conversations” will help reduce regional tensions over the sea. “The whole world has an interest in a peaceful South China Sea and in seeing these disputes resolved peacefully and diplomatically,” he said in an interview in Phnom Penh. “So we’ll continue to make that point.” (Sok Khemara, Phnom Penh)